Poem Terminology

• Archaism


  Something which is very old or old-fashioned, especially an archaic word or style of language or art.
• Ballard meter


  Rhyming of lines within a stanza usually rhyming abcb
• Enjambment


  A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line.
• Implicit responder/response


  Implied response
• Personification


  Giving inanimate objects human features and characteristics
• Syntax


  Word order
• Volta


  A turning point in a poem
• End stopped line


  A full stop
• Lines: alternating long and short


  Varied sentence length
• Apostrophe


  When the poet addresses an absent person or object in their poem
• Allusion


  An indirect or brief reference to a person, place or something historical, political or literary significance such as the Bible
• Caesura


  A pause in the middle of a line of poetry usually marked with a significant piece of punctuation
• Image


  When descriptive language is used to describe, triggering the senses.
• Pentameter


  A line of verse of five feet
• Refrain


  A phrase or verse that is repeated at specific intervals in a poem, usually between stanzas
• Sestet


  A stanza or verse that is compromised of six lines
• Hyperbaton


  the use of inverted word order, especially for emphasis
• Couplet


  Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
• Euphemism


  A softer way of phrasing something
• Lyric/lyrical


  Musical features that express poet's thoughts/feelings
• Quatrain


  Verse of four lines
• Simile


  Comparing something to something else
• Declarative


  Statement
• Antithesis


  Opposite
• Conventional poetic vocabulary


  General features of poetry